


talk things out

by kosmokuns



Category: Alex Rider (TV 2020), Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz
Genre: Co-Parents, Coming Out, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, How is that not a tag, Light Angst, No Book Spoilers, That Should Be It - Freeform, alex being a moody teenager, ian and yass are besties but it can be romance if u want, ian and yass coparenting alex bc john said so, mentioned homophobic bullying, putting this in both tags, there we go, um
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:40:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25535254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kosmokuns/pseuds/kosmokuns
Summary: Ian and Alex talk out why Alex has been upset and angry recently.featuring: a coming out scene, yassen on the phone, ian rider being in touch with his emotions and some door slamming
Relationships: Alex Rider & Ian Rider, Ian Rider & Yassen Gregorovich, Tom Harris & Alex Rider, Yassen Gregorovich & Alex Rider
Comments: 13
Kudos: 69





	talk things out

When Alex changed from rounded cheeks and wide smiles and screaming with joy to _this_ Ian does not know. It didn’t even feel gradual, one day a wall slammed up between them, Alex barricading himself behind snide comments and crossed arms. Ian feels like he’s navigating a maze he didn’t know he was in until he couldn’t see where he started and couldn’t remember any steps except the last three he’d taken.

“Alex, you need to pack your bag for tomorrow,” He shouts up the stairs, blazing trail where Alex had stormed off after dinner still smouldering on the carpet. He gets the sound of a door slamming shut in return. “Alex, come down and pack your bag, please.” It feels ridiculous talking to a fourteen-year-old like this, the only time he felt it before was when Alex went through his difficult phase at three. Still, he receives no answer. “I don’t want to ask again, Alex.”

“Tough fucking luck then,” Comes down the stairs, Alex’s voice breaking slightly on the u of luck. He’s so young, Ian reminds himself, he’s changing, he needs patience. The earth slides out under your feet at fourteen, Ian remembers, nothing feels stable. Ian had hoped home felt stable, but when your two fathers aren’t married, never have been, and are both lying about their careers and are barely at home together, he guesses it probably isn’t. Ian takes a deep breath and steadies himself on the bannister, then climbs up the stairs.

Yassen’s room is to the left of the stairs, the bathroom ahead, and a small hallway on the right divides Ian and Alex’s rooms, Ian’s on the right and Alex’s on the left. Knocking softly on the door, Ian calls out to Alex,

“Alex,” He says, “Can you open this door for me?” Alex scoffs,

“No,” He bites out from inside,

“I get you’re upset, Alex, but I can’t help if I don’t know what’s wrong, so please open the door,” Ian replies softly. He hates having to fight this hard just to have a conversation.

“Nothing’s wrong, Ian, I’m fine,” He says. His voice is evidence to the contrary.

“Alex, stop bullshitting me, something is wrong, let’s talk about it.” There’s an extended pause and then the sound of something hitting a wall and crashing to the floor,

“It’s none of your business!” Alex shouts, “For the love of God, leave me alone!”

Ian decides he isn’t going to get anywhere at the moment. He sighs and bites his lip out of frustration,

“I’m going to give you twenty minutes to calm down, and then we’re having a proper chat, alright?” He says through the door, hoping he sounds more confident than he is. Hearing Alex huff through the door, he leaves and walks back downstairs, sliding into an armchair in their sitting room. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and pulls up his contacts, scrolls through, and hits call on ‘yass – always answer’. Forgive him, it’s so tempting to not pick up sometimes.

He gets through after three rings, Yassen’s voice coming out of the speakers into his ear immediately,

“Evening, Ian,” His voice is clear as day and Ian relaxes into the armchair a little more. Yassen is his best friend, his confidant, and his co-parent, he also has a way of managing to defuse any situation, something Ian has never been gifted with.

“Evening, Yass,” He replies, keeping his tone low in case Alex can hear them.

“Tough day?”

“You wouldn’t even believe it,” Ian groans and Yassen laughs. He sounds so carefree compared to ten years ago, first careening into their lives and trying to make up for four years lost time, four years MI6 couldn’t find him even though John had left Alex to the both of them.

“How’s Alex?” Worry laces his voice, he knows how Alex has been behaving recently, has the angry texts about _why the fuck did you leave me here with this fucking overbearing idiot_ to prove it.

“I wouldn’t say we had an argument, but he’s not happy with me. It’s so irritating, I can’t get through to him. I feel pretty humiliated to be honest, you’ve always been better at this than me,” He can hear Yassen rustle something before his voice comes back,

“You’re English, feelings don’t come naturally to either of you,” It cracks a laugh out of Ian,

“Thank you, Yassen, so helpful,” He says, “What an insightful observation.” Yassen is losing it on the other end of the line as he always does when making fun of England. Ian’s learned to just accept it, Alex loves it, finds it equally hilarious. _Ian, stop being such a patriot,_ he says through laughs, _this country is a shit hole_ and Yassen tells him off for swearing with a smile still hanging onto his lips. He misses when they were together more, but he can’t fault Yassen for the job he’s got.

“I’m joking,” Yassen says, breathless, “And you are good at this, you persist and by doing that you’re showing Alex you want to listen, sometimes that’s enough. He’ll come around.” Ian scrubs a hand down his face,

“You sound so confident,” He wiggles around, trying to get comfortable,

“I know how good of a father you are to him,” Yassen replies. Ian flicks his watch around to look at the time,

“Okay five minutes, tell me about your day then I’m hanging up to psyche myself up for talking to this child.” Yassen takes off on a tirade about how irritating his latest client is and Ian settles in, content to hear him rant.

They hang up with mutual goodbyes and promises to talk soon. Ian stretches up off the chair, rolling his shoulders backwards, and sets off to the kitchen to make a tea. He takes a teabag out of the jar labelled ‘decaf’ and puts it in a mug, boils the kettle and tips in the water. He leaves it to steep and takes the teabag out, adding a few drops of milk. He takes a long sip, letting the hot liquid wash down his throat and shutting his eyes for a few blissful seconds. Tea is really a reverent affair.

A couple of knocks on the double doors from the sitting room into the kitchen bring him out of his calm state. The doors are held open by wedges, always are, but Alex has knocked anyway, a painfully shy expression on his face. His shoulders are hunched forward, and his hands clasped together in front of him, big eyes staring towards Ian.

“Ready to talk now?” Ian asks, mug still between his hands. Alex nods, and Ian spares him a gentle smile, “Let’s go sit down, shall we?”

They settle on opposite sides of the sitting room, Ian in his armchair and Alex pressed into a corner of the wide sofa they have. Ian sets his mug down on the coffee table in front of him and looks towards Alex expectantly,

“I’m sorry,” Alex blurts out, “I’m sorry that I yelled at you,”

“Apology accepted, I’m sorry for pushing you, I should’ve realised you needed a few minutes to cool off.” Alex waves him off,

“You’re not, like, psychic, it’s okay,” He pauses, “Someone said something at school today, about Tom, and it made me so mad, and then you wanted me to do all these things to get ready for tomorrow and I just couldn’t take it.” He takes a breath, “Sorry,” He tacks on.

“Don’t apologise if you don’t know what it’s for,” Ian says on reflex. “What did they say about Tom?” At this point, Tom is like a son to him, having been around for so long. Alex’s sole friend who forces him to be more social, to put himself into uncomfortable situations. Ian is relieved that Alex has him. He sees Alex’s muscles tense, his eyes dart away from Ian’s face, “You can tell me, Alex.”

“I don’t want to break Tom’s trust,” Alex confesses, wringing his hands. Ian crosses the room and fits himself onto the sofa next to him, hand going to rub across the back of Alex’s shoulders,

“There’s a difference between breaking his trust and making sure he’s not in danger,” Alex’s mouth opens and Ian silences him with a look, “And that’s for you to decide where the line is, but if it’s made you this upset, I’d like to know what it was.” Alex nods and gulps,

“These guys, they’ve been tormenting him for ages, calling him… all sorts of awful things, normally it’s only at him, but today they brought me into it too and I feel so _guilty_ about it,” He huffs and curls his hands into fists, pressing them down onto his knees. Ian cards a hand through the hair at the top of Alex’s neck, watching him carefully,

“What have they been saying?” Ian asks gently, already having an idea. He’s a parent and a spy, no one can hide things from him,

“Just stuff about his sexuality,” His voice is strained, “God, it’s so fucking unfair, there’s nothing wrong with him and they won’t stop no matter what he does.”

“From what I’m hearing, I don’t think you have any reason to be guilty. Bullying is the bullies’ fault only. Not yours because they used you to wind up your friend, that’s on them,” Ian kneels in front of him to make eye contact, “This is not your fault.” He says slowly, punctuating every word with a tap on Alex’s right knee.

“I know,” He replies, “It still feels a bit like it though.” Ian leaves it at that for the moment,

“How’s Tom?”

“He’s sort of used to it by now, obviously it hurts him, but he just ignores it,” Alex sighs, “I wish there was something more I could do,”

“No fights,” Ian says sharply,

“I know,” Alex rolls his eyes, “I’m not stupid,”

“Good, I didn’t raise an idiot,” Ian reaches up and ruffles his hair, “I can talk to the school, if you want?” Alex bites his lip,

“Can we ask Tom first? He’s coming over tomorrow,”

“Of course,” Ian squeezes his knee and stands up, “You’re doing the dishes with me for the rest of the week by the way, you still slammed your door and shouted at me,” Alex groans and drops his face into his hands, Ian cackling as he walks through to the kitchen and puts his mug on the side.

He groups the take-away boxes into recyclable and general waste and dumps the dregs of the sauces into the food recycling. Balancing the boxes on top of each other, he takes the stack out and puts them into their respective bins. When he gets back, Alex is still on the sofa,

“You can leave,” Ian says, amused.

“Ian, I’m bisexual,” He fixes his eyes on the floor, not daring to meet Ian’s eyes,

“Come here,” Ian replies. Alex looks up and he’s got his arms stretched wide and a comforting smile on his lips. Diving forward, he bundles himself into Ian’s arms, completely enveloped in his hug. Ian’s arms close strongly around him, pressing him tight into his body, Alex feels a soft kiss pressed to the top of his head,

“I’m proud of you,” Ian whispers, “Coming out is a hard thing to do. You’re my son and I love you.” Alex whimpers and snuggles closer,

“I was so scared you would react badly,”

“Nothing could make me not want you, no matter how pissy you get or how much shouting and door slamming you do. Nothing,” He rubs Alex’s back, “Same goes for Yassen, we’re so proud of who you’re becoming,”

“But I’ve been such a dick lately,” Alex says quietly, ashamed,

“You’re fourteen, Alex, it’s nothing we didn’t know was coming.” Ian pinches his side and he yelps, giving Ian an affronted look, Ian laughs, “Go to bed, Alex, I’ll see in the morning.” Alex huffs and stalks out of the room,

“Good night!” He calls behind him,

“Night, sleep tight,” Ian shouts back. He leans back against the counter and pulls out his phone.

_Got it all sorted out with Alex, just some school stuff, might have to call in but I don’t know yet,_ he texts, _I think he might call you in the next few days too. Night x_

_Told you you could do it!_ Yassen replies, _Sleep tight x_

**Author's Note:**

> heyyy thank you for reading!! i wrote this i want ian and yassen coparenting alex so badly. lbr, it's what we all want. 
> 
> if you enjoyed this please leave a comment and kudos, i see and treasure them all,
> 
> stay safe,
> 
> g x


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